A Vagabond

In the shuffle of midnight rain

a man seeks respite in the corner

of a garbage bin --- the wooden kind,

built to sustain leftovers from someone’s

kitchen table, so convenient

for the residue of him.

Once he too shared life’s overflow,

cutlery shiny in its newness

table set for four --- wife lovely

and the two of them

causing love to run wild,

came bills and sickness, lost the car

around a curve --- life

turned pages into a future of anguish.

Now in the twilight of life’s flow

no longer able to restrain

the bottle, brings it to knowing lips

-- to forget.